# Supreme Court

• ‘Tarikh pe tarikh’ may well become a thing of the past as the Supreme Court gets strict with lawyers seeking adjournments and such pleas, even from senior lawyers, are now being denied.
• Shedding its usual practice of adopting a liberal approach, especially with regard to senior lawyers who are unable to appear on many occasions due to engagement in other cases, supreme Court on Monday made it clear that hearing would not be deferred.
• The change in approach in the Supreme Court is discernible after CJI UU Lalit took over last month as the CJI.

# Sensex, Rupee

• A weakening rupee against the dollar and continuing sell off in the global major markets pulled sensex down 950 points to a two month low.
• Aggressive selling by foreign funds was the main reason and domestic funds tried to cushion the fall by buying aggressively but failed.
• The rupee closed at a new all time low of 81.62 against the dollar on Monday.
• The rupee has weakened by ₹2.16 in September following the US federal bank’s rate hike and war in Ukraine.

# Fertility rate

• The general fertility rate (GFR) has declined in India by 20% over the past decade.
• GFR refers to the number of children born per 1000 women in a year in the reproductive age group of 15-49.
• The average GFR in India stood at 86.1 from 2008 to 2010 and has come down to 68.7 in 2018-20.
• The decline as shown by sample registration system data has been steep in rural areas at 20.2% compared to 15.6% in urban areas.

# Delhi

• Revising the air pollution reduction targets for Indian cities to 40% by 2025-26 over 2017 levels, the Union environment minister said the final goal was to bring particulate matters concentrations within acceptable limits everywhere.
• There are 131 cities under NCAP.